EVOLUTION OF THE IMMUNE RESPONSE

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Abstract
Rising levels of immune responsiveness and increasing complexity of serum proteins in the gamma area immunoelectrophoretically are observed going up the phylogenetic scale of the cyclostomes to the teleosts. Hagfish, the lowest vertebrate forms, lack all evidence of adaptive immunity and have no globulin of the gamma type. The lamprey has a feeble antibody response and a single faint gamma band. The bowfin (holostean) and the guitarfish and horned shark (both elasmobranchs) have greater immunologic capability, particularly in the secondary response to certain antigens. The bowfin and the 2 teleost fishes studied form precipitating antibody, lacking in the cyclostomes and elasmobranchs. All of the latter have bands in the gamma region which resemble those of human gamma globulin. The capacity for antibody production is apparently paralleled by delayed hypersensitivity and homograft immunity in phylogeny, but these studies are incomplete.